Survey Reveals Most Important Factors in Attracting and Retaining Employees

The recently released Towers Watson Retirement Attitudes Survey has identified the top 10 most important factors that attract and help retain employees in multiple age groups. The survey divided up over 9,200 U.S employees into age categories including those under 40, those between 40 and 49, and those 50 and older.

The survey found that for the youngest workers, the 10 most important factors (out of 23) were, in descending order: job security, base pay, healthcare benefits, vacation time, reputation of an organization as a great place to work, length of commute, career development opportunities, retirement benefits, challenging work, and promotion opportunities.

For the middle aged set, the survey found that the most important factors were: healthcare benefits, base pay, job security, vacation time, challenging work, reputation of an organization as a great place to work, retirement benefits, length of commute, career development opportunities, and relationship with supervisor.

For workers over the age of 50 the top factors were: job security, healthcare benefits, base pay, retirement benefits, length of commute, challenging work, vacation time, reputation of an organization as a great place to work, organization’s products or services, and caliber of coworkers.

The survey showed that retirement benefits have become a much more attractive
feature to new and current employees, probably due to the recent troubled economy. Since Of employees with a defined benefit plan, 51 percent said the plan was an important reason for choosing their employer; an almost 65 percent increase over 2009. Of those workers with a defined contribution plan, over one-quarter reported it being an important reason for joining their current organization; a 5 percent increase from 2009.

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Joshua Bjerke, from Savannah, Georgia, focuses on articles involving the labor force, economy, and HR topics including new technology and workplace news. Joshua has a B.A. in Political Science with a Minor in International Studies and is currently pursuing his M.A. in International Security.